Macbeth

Well of course you're going to hallucinate after you drink the piss and tongues of about a dozen different animals. ~the olden days~

I can feel the dirt and slime from the castle on my skin. The best source material for someone to choose if they are incredibly angry with, uh, what happened in their life.

I remember seeing this and thinking that it was one of the first films where I sensed a subdued anger, a man outraged at the heavens, and reluctantly soaked in blood. Only later did I learn of the terrible personal tragedy that had befallen Polanski himself.

For a long time, this was the best screen version of MacBeth. Then Michael Fassbender played the lead role in 2015, and this version was eclipsed. It's still totally great, though.

Polanski's bloody adaptation of Macbeth is effective because it betrays the text while respecting its structural integrity, fusing it with his own gloomy vision. He has no problems translating the graceful rhythms of the Bard's distinctive prose to the screen with the help of a committed cast. His richly atmospheric direction makes optimal use of real locations, presenting a barren godless world of mud, murk and mist that foreshadows the fate of Macbeth and damns his entire milieu.

Sacrifices the poetic elegance of Shakespeare in favor of capturing a film director's vision, which, because it's Polanski, is definitely not a bad thing. Gritty and haunting; a fascinating adaptation of the play.

It's a pretty good adaptation, I think. It seems reasonably loyal, but also adds a few nice touches. It has a couple of truly Polanski-esque moments, but it's mostly told in a fairly straightforward manner. I think I prefer Orson Welles' Macbeth (1948), but this is an absolutely fine film.

I have not seen this in close to 20 years, but I recall parts of it very vividly so it clearly had an impact on me. There was something about the brutal nature of Polanski's adaptation - above and beyond Shakespeare's text - that appealed to me. Time for another viewing, I think, based on which my rating may increase.

had to watch this in school. score 35 except for the director

The colours & the mood of the film in dark blues and dirty and realistic clothes all caught me from the beginning, and what makes this movie's attitude a very modern one, is that it lets us both empathize & sympathize with Macbeth, to evaluate him not as an evil but a victim of the motor of history, a result of the structure surrounding him. Furthermore the very last scene which doesn't exist in the play underlines that there won't be progress in history unless the power is abolished altogether.

Probably the best Shakespeare movie ever made--since movies are supposed to "move." Every movement of the camera is involving, every framed shot is visually elegant. It is much more cynical and nihilistic than Shakespeare . . . but Polanski has a right to his own version of the original vision. The hand-to-hand combat at the end is a little cartoonish, but all-in-all this is a resounding success.

directed by a convicted rapist who fled the country to avoid jail time.

Magnificent adaption

Filthy, dirt-caked, brutal and brilliant, in retrospect it comes off like the stylistic predecessor of Deadwood.

Score based on distant memory.

This viewing is extremely beneficial if you watch it with friends and laugh at the ridiculous parts.

Very creepy. Well made.

This movie was great in some parts but was ridiculously laughable in others (cheesy 'glow in the dark' dagger! Naked old witches!) Overall it was a faithful adaptation that failed to really leave us haunted by the brutal and ruthless Macbeth.

A good adaption, but not thoroughly fantastic. At some moments it was particularly good, but I didn't feel like it kept quality throughout.

Absolutely squalid. From the production design to the characters themselves, there's no escaping the filth.

79.000

This film tried my patience, and eventually rewarded it. The locations are immediately impressive: rain-flooded moors thick with fog, dark and muddy and filled with gratuitous blood spill. But despite its literal muck and slime, the first half is bone dry, fairly straightforward and understated. Then it escalates. The latter portions are filled with cinematic trickery and atmospheric effect. The performances become fevered, and utter (if perhaps single-minded) nihilism reigns.

Polanski's Macbeth is viscerally compelling, but his sequences of Macbeth's delusion are hit-or-miss.

Whenever I think of this adaptation I think of the scene with the naked old ladies. *shudder*

74.625

So many factors go into saying what makes a great Shakespeare film, but I think it's safe to say that Polanski's adaptation of "Macbeth" is the greatest example of Shakespeare adapted as film. I'm not saying it's the greatest Shakespeare film, though I think it's on the short list, but it's the most filmic adaptation. Gritty, realistic and tone and not the slightest bit theatrical, it's pure cinema.

But it looks and feels real medieval.